The best traffic-free bike rides around Saint-Séverin

A charming village and home to the largest underground church in Europe. It is officially listed as "one of the most beautiful villages in France." Located in the southern Charente region, it borders the Dordogne, renowned for its historic villages, castles, prehistoric caves, and breathtaking landscapes. In the heart of the village, a lovely square awaits you, lined with terraces and restaurants. Enjoy strolling through its narrow, cobbled, medieval, and romantic streets, lined with typical stone houses that give the village its special and picturesque character.

A visit is absolutely recommended, unique.

Church in the village of Bonnes, built in the 12th or 13th century. The chapels, the bell tower and its bell, and the portal date from the first half of the 16th century. These features led to the building's classification as a Historic Monument in 1995. A canopy attached to the main facade provides welcome shelter in rainy weather.

Very beautiful village

Marie atypical and picturesque which is located in a former small manor beautifully restored. There is a lighted well placed in the center of its hall of honor. This town hall is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in Charente. https://www.montmoreau.fr/index-module-orki-page-view-id-114.html

Passage which allows you to see the town hall building, authentic and well restored, that of the church and a beautiful panorama of Montmoreau.

This is one of the six Romanesque churches in the new commune of Montmoreau. It is located in the heart of a very hilly landscape, perched on top of a hill, and offers a beautiful view of the center of Montmoreau. The construction of this Romanesque church dates back to the 12th century. At that time, it was a former vicarage of the diocese of Périgueux, dependent on the abbey of Nanteuil-en-Vallée. The nave now houses a set of well-preserved neo-Gothic furniture from the 19th century. There are a Stations of the Cross, a pulpit, and a painting of Saint-Amand (Bishop of Bordeaux in the 5th century). On the south wall of the nave, there are traces of a wall painting that is unfortunately very damaged, but one of the characters can still be distinguished: a light tonsured man. These remains are a reminder that religious buildings were generally painted in medieval times. The painted scenes covered the interior space, more the sanctuary, reserved for the religious, than the nave where the laity were confined. https://www.montmoreau.fr/index-module-orki-page-view-id-115.html

Montmoreau Castle is in the new commune of Montmoreau in Charente Montmoreau is a new French commune located in the Charente department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It was created on January 1, 2017 from the merger of Montmoreau-Saint-Cybard, Saint-Amant, Saint-Eutrope, Saint-Laurent-de-Belzagot and Aignes and Puypéroux. Montmoreau Castle stands at the top of a natural hill overlooking the Tude Valley. In the centuries of instability and disorder that followed the collapse of Roman Gaul, the invasion of the Arabs from Spain around 700 and the Viking raids in 844 added to the anxiety of the populations of our region. Then the disintegration of the Carolingian empire led to a dispersion of the centers of power from which feudalism would be born. This is why the 10th and 11th centuries were a time when a large number of fortified entrenchments or camps were established, often built on "castral mounds", which are at the origin of many of today's "castles". The hill of Montmoreau offered in a way a perfect natural mound for the construction of what was probably at first a simple fortified camp and became a feudal castle in the 11th century. It occupied the platform and was provided with a double fortified enclosure. The two round towers of the current building belonged to the feudal castle. Likewise the porch chapel, Notre-Dame chapel, which was located in the first enclosure. But excavations would surely reveal traces of other remains. The current castle was built on this same site in the middle of the 15th century, perhaps by Guy de Mareuil, lord of Montmoreau, Villebois and Mareuil. With the exception of the two feudal towers, the entire building is partly Gothic and partly Renaissance. It is a perfect witness to this pivotal period between a world that was ending and a world that was beginning. Over the centuries, it seems that the various lords and then owners of the castle never had enough money to add buildings from different periods to the building, as can be seen in so many other castles. Preserved almost intact since its construction, the castle of Montmoreau therefore offers an architectural heritage of exceptional purity. The renovations carried out by the current owner aim, by reinforcing the solidity of the buildings, to restore the original aspects under the few modifications that have been made. Towards the east, overlooking the Tude valley, the castle displays a façade that looks great with its high main building flanked by the two round feudal towers and its sloping roofs of flat tiles from which the chimneys emerge. On the side of the north tower, about halfway up, we can make out an old door that opened onto the castle's patrol path. The Gothic gables of the central body bristle with stone plant crosiers. Their bases are seated on two sculptures of "intimidating lions", one opening its mouth to the north, the other to the south, and they are crowned by a finial. To the north and south, a pavilion leans against the gable. The southern one has just regained its original three-sided roof. Towards the west, the façade that faces the park also mixes eras. The mullioned Renaissance windows retain civil Gothic motifs. The hexagonal tower of the staircase projects from the façade. It has a very beautiful door in flamboyant Gothic style, with a tympanum sculpted with prismatic ribs and intertwined foliage practically erased by the erosion of time. But if you look closely, you can make out a bird in profile among the foliage on the right side. Perhaps the signature of the stonemason artist. In the corner of this tower and the façade, stands a watchtower with a pointed bell tower made of chestnut essentes (a type of shingle) whose base in a "cul-de-lampe" is completely in the Renaissance style. Source: https://montmoreau.fr/index-module-orki-page-view-id-116.html#:~:text=L'%C3%A9difice%20a%20%C3%A9t%C3%A9%20class%C3%A9,%C3%A9difice%20par%20la%20nef%20porche. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Montmoreau https://monumentum.fr/monument-histoire/pa00104431/montmoreau-chateau